Bomb, chemical testing

Different applications of urban-scale meteorology and wind-flow models to the emergency preparedness systems and issues for city areas can be considered many types of accidental NBC releases in urban or agricultural canopy areas. Possible threats and risks of terror actions in such areas may include 1) radionuclide releases due to accidents at nuclear power plants, dirty bombs , nuclear tests explosions, etc. 2) bioterror actions 3) chemical harmful releases due to different kind of accidents or terror acts. 

Reporting on Chemical Testing of the Bigeye Binary Chemical Bomb, Letter from Frank C. Conahan, Director GAO, to the Hon Ed Bethune, dated 30 October 1984. 

At the same time, the public s faith in science and technology was eroding. Radioactive fallout from atomic bomb tests was poisoning cows milk, and the thalidomide antinausea medicine prescribed to pregnant women in Europe had caused severe birth defects in 8000 children. Above all, the enormous growth of the chemical industry and pollution after World War II put public pressure on Congress to clean up the nation s air and water. 

Apart from the use of practical explosive tests to assess damage patterns at a crime scene, it has been suggested that patterns of deposition of explosives residue could be similarly assessed [27]. Practical experience shows that even in a planned scientific experiment there are huge variations in residue deposition patterns because of the difficulty of controlling aU the relevant parameters. Events at a crime scene are completely uncontrolled and subject to even greater variations, and to make matters worse the design, placement and performance of the explosive device are at best inferred rather than known. The presence of chemical traces of a particular explosive at a bomb scene is a useful indication of the material used the drawing of any conclusions beyond that point should be subject to extremely cautious consideration. 

Explosion Reactions Physico-Chemical Investigations of. Heats of explosion of various chemicals were calculated from thermodynamic considerations and obtained experimentally in bomb tests Ref R. Dautel, Physikalisch-Chemische Untersuchung von Explosions Reaktionen, Explosivstoffe 1963, 10—18 (14 refs)... 

On 19 May 1953, a bomb of 32 kT yield (code name Harry) was exploded at the Nevada Test Site. A gamma dose rate equivalent to 27 milliroentgen per hour (230//Gy h 1) at 1 d was measured at St George, Utah, 200 km from the test site. Assuming no chemical fractionation of fission products, the fallout of 131I at St George was 1.0 MBq m 2. This is almost identical to the fallout of 1311 in the zone of maximum deposition about 10 km from Windscale (Chamberlain, 1959). Relative... 

Anon., Chemical Warfare Bombing Tests on Warships, Chemical Warfare, 6(10) (1921), p. 6. 

Linus Pauling was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954 for his investigations of the chemical bond. Eight years later he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his vigorous opposition to the testing of nuclear bombs. He is the only person ever to receive two unshared Nobel Prizes. 

The second task of this project was to manufacture enough S-10 for the army to test it in a small bomb to see if it would stand up to such treatment. We did this work in 121 Gates. Both for 65 Crellin and for 121 Gates, Professor Dickinson gave me several sheets of paper that spelled out the hazards of the gases and safety procedures to be followed with each apparatus, and he insisted that I study them. After that first day, I approached the S-10 hood with especial caution, although some of the other chemicals were equally or more poisonous the colorless odorless part of it made it different. At least, CHAR I stopped S-10 to a satisfactory degree. 

Most tests involved bombs dropped from aircraft. As the first bombing test, a B24 formation delivered a pattern bombing to the target area, but this test failed because of some mistake made by the Chemical Corps. John Thomas told me that the bombs went into the ground without exploding. Eventually they completed many successful tests and reached significant conclusions (W.A. Noyes, Jr., page 323). 

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